Programme and staff handbook for Cheltenham Festival, 2020

Official programme for day three (12 March 2020) and day four (13 March 2020) and staff handbook for the Cheltenham horse-racing festival, 2020

The annual Cheltenham horse-racing festival between 10 and 13 March 2020, attracted over 250,000 people. On 11 March the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 as a pandemic.

Mass gatherings were still allowed in England and people continued to travel into work. On 16 March 2020 people were advised to stop non-essential contact with others, work from home where possible and self-isolate for 14 days of symptoms of a cough or fever. By 23 March, the first national lockdown started.

There was some criticism of the event going ahead given the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom and across Europe.

In the preliminary report of the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on 12 October 2020 it stated that due to the festival going ahead there was an additional 41 deaths in local hospitals. The report stated "However, it is not clear whether those deaths were as a result of attendance at the events themselves or associated activities such as travel or congregation in pubs."